


Anything Can Happen

by ticklishblaine (lightsandsparks)



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-15
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2018-03-07 14:47:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3176423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightsandsparks/pseuds/ticklishblaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Chris is an author and Darren is a fan who catches him signing a book<br/>For Mandy, featuring teacher!Darren :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything Can Happen

Darren was never much of a reader. Well, maybe he was and just never knew it. He tended to zone out while reading; only super special things like Harry Potter and the Narnia series tended to be able to capture his attention long enough for him to truly be able to delve in. For the most part, however, he liked to stick to movies and TV shows for his multimedia-media consumption affinity.

All of this is why he was completely thrown off when he found himself absolutely devouring every piece ever written by a certain author by the semi-pseudonym of “C. Colfer.”

It had started innocently enough. He had seen an older copy of the second addition to one of the many fantasy series written by the author on a student’s desk. Curiosity about the shiny purple cover had gotten the better of him, and after asking about it and sitting through a ten-minute long rave about how amazing the entire series was, he immediately ordered the first part on Amazon.

The Land of Stories was everything it was apparently cracked up to be and more. After devouring all four parts in a little under two weeks (a record) he knew he needed to incorporate the books into a lesson plan somehow. A little research had led him to find that many other teachers had already assigned the book as required reading, and that was all the convincing he needed to start teaching the book to his class.

Months later, he had consumed everything he could get his hands on that had ever been written or produced by this “C. Colfer” person. The man (or woman) also had a few movies on their extensive resume, but Darren found himself enjoying the books the most. They were like little worlds he could jump into to escape the stress of wrangling thirty 8-year-olds for five days a week. They were both a comfort and a fascination, and Darren would be the first to admit he was a little obsessed.

—

It was the beginning of the year and Darren was over-stressed and exhausted to the very bone. His class was a little rowdier than usual this year; none of them were particularly “bad” per say, but it was definitely much more of a challenge to get them to pay attention to the more boring aspects of his teachings.

Needless to say, with a long night of grading tests and revising lesson plans ahead of him, coffee was needed.

He was practically falling asleep while waiting in line when he heard a small shriek of what could only have been described as pure joy. Snapping out of his dream-like state, he turned to see a small girl positively beaming at a - _wow_ \- very attractive man sitting in the corner of the shop with his laptop. She was rambling on about something as the man smiled, looking down and quickly writing something on the first page of a book before handing it back to her with a grin. She continued to talk him for a few minutes before waving goodbye and running back over to the line where a lady in front of him - presumably her mother - was waiting. Still beaming, she handed the book to her mother and Darren’s eyes practically bulged out of his head as he took in the title The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns, the very first book in the series that Darren had ever laid eyes on.

“You got it signed?” the mother asked the girl.

“Yeah! He’s so nice! Just like he was at his signing for the first one. And guess what? He said he’s working on the fifth one right now, right here! He wouldn’t let me read it, though.”

Darren looked back over to the man who was now furiously staring at his laptop, stunned and admittedly fan-girling a little bit. He had no clue what “C. Colfer” actually looked like; in the back of his mind, he was always aware he could just look them up, sure that a picture was online somewhere. Darren kind of enjoyed the mystery though. Besides, to him, it didn’t matter who the author was or what they looked like. It was the words on the page that were important.

It didn’t hurt however, that C. Colfer turned out to be really fucking hot.

Darren took some time to prepare himself, getting his coffee and then lingering for a few minutes longer as he decided on what to say. He was practically shaking he was so excited. How could he tell this man how important his works were? How excited the students that previously hated reading were to finish each book? How they even helped some of them learn _how_ to read, and sometimes to even overcome disabilities like dyslexia?

He didn’t want to go too far though. He could ramble for hours if he wanted and obviously this dude was busy. He had to say something though; he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t.

He settled on the ground-breaking phrase, “Hi!”

The man looked up, possibly a bit startled which Darren felt bad about. That feeling quickly dissolved, however, when he smiled back at him. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Um… you’re C. Colfer, yeah?”

If possible, the man smiled even wider. “Yeah! You’ve read my stuff?”

Darren was almost physically forcing himself to stay calm at this point. “Read it? I teach it! I love your stuff, dude. I’ve read it all, it’s amazing. I love it so much that I make my kids read it - I mean, my students. I’m a teacher, not a dad - but yeah, they love it too! It’s awesome.”

C. Colfer smiled, taking off his glasses and putting them down before reaching out his hand for Darren to shake. “I’m glad. That’s what I was going for when I started it. The whole ‘for all ages’, thing.”

“That’s awesome, man. We all really got a lot out of it. It even encouraged some of them to read more, and I had a few with dyslexia that tried harder to overcome it just because they loved your books so much.” 

He looked truly touched by that. “Wow. That’s amazing. Thanks for telling me that. It’s definitely going to help me get over this writer’s block I’m about to get stuck in. What’s your name?”

“Darren.”

“I’m Chris. Chris Colfer, but I guess you already knew that,” he answered.

“Not really, I never looked it up. But that’s a good name. I like it.” _Genius line, moron._

Chris laughed; at him or with him Darren couldn’t tell, but apparently he wasn’t too put-off because “How about you stay and drink that here?” he asked, pointing to Darren’s coffee. “I’m having a little trouble with this next chapter and I’d love to get some of your teacher-ly insights.”

Darren blushed, for the first time in what had probably been years. “Yeah, yeah. I’d like that.”

And from that moment, Darren decided that their future children would be named Conner and Alex after the books that brought them together, and that he’d read them the entire Land of Stories series every night, as a reminder than anything really can happen.


End file.
